Jämställdhet och genusmedvetenhet ur ett förebyggande perspektiv : En studie av skolkuratorers handlingsutrymme och deras förutsättningar att arbeta förebyggande med jämställdhet och genusmedvetenhet relaterat till våldsnormer

Sammanfattning: The aim of this study was to investigate how school counselors at elementary school and high school describe their possibilities to work with prevention in generally and also more specific with prevention aimed at gender and norms of violence. We also wanted to investigate if the school counselors had room for action to affect their work. Using a qualitative approach with semi-structured interviews we interviewed eight social workers employed as school counselors at different schools in south of Sweden. The analysis was based on gender theory and thoughts from Hirdman and Connell. We also focused on their room for action connected to Svensson, Johansson and Laanemets interpretations of Lipskys concept Street level bureaucrats and theories about room for action. The social workers’ descriptions indicate that their room for action in work is controlled by the organisation and the resources they are given. The descriptions also indicates that the knowledge about prevention, gender and norms of violence affect how they are able to use their room for action. We also found out that the school counselor's own interest in questions such as gender and norms played an important part to which extent they chose to work with these questions or fight for their possibilities to do so.